Deactivated phone numbers for USA and Canada

Last updated: 2/14/2023

These guidelines are relevant for SMS and MMS compliance in USA and Canada. 

A deactivated phone number is one that a mobile operator has taken out of service for an end user, either because the end user has switched operator or has otherwise closed their account. Eventually all deactivated numbers are recycled and activated for new subscribers. What this means is that it's easy to mistakenly send a text message to a phone number that has been reassigned to an end user who has not opted in to your program.

This is important for messaging in the US because the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) considers this spam and can impose fines for sending a message to a user who is not opted in. Fines can be up to $1,500 per MT message per end user, and you may also be subject to a class action lawsuit.

Complicating the situation further is the fact that mobile operators do not keep numbers inactive for the same amount of time. Some reassign a deactivated number in as little as two days, while others wait 50 days before reassigning a number.

Example: How a mobile phone gets deactivated

A business has Jennifer's phone number and her consent to receive text messages. In other words, Jennifer has explicitly "opted in" to the business's messaging program.

One day, Jennifer switches her mobile phone service from one operator to another, giving up the phone number that she used to opt in to the program. In other words, Jennifer did not port or take her mobile phone number with her when she switched mobile operators. The mobile operator puts her phone number on its deactivation list. This particular operator keeps deactivated numbers inactive for two days.

If the business attempts to send a text message to the phone number during the two-day deactivation period, the message will fail and the business will receive an error code from Infobip indicating that the number is currently in an operator's deactivation file. However, after three days, the mobile operator re-assigns the deactivated phone number to another subscriber. Now if the business attempts to send a text message to the phone number, the message will succeed because the number is no longer deactivated; however, the end user (who is not Jennifer) will be confused and perhaps annoyed about receiving a text they did not request. Unfortunately, this constitutes spam and exposes the business to statutory penalties associated with the TCPA. It does not matter that the consumer was on an unlimited messaging plan or that you sent the messages as Free To End User (FTEU); the message is still considered spam because the new phone number owner did not opt in to receive it.

How Infobip helps

Infobip helps to mitigate the risk of sending messages to deactivated numbers by providing Deactivated Phone Numbers reports ("Deact" reports). We provide Deact reports to help you keep your phone number lists current. The reports originate from the mobile operators and contain the phone numbers associated with deactivate and disconnect events in their systems. By making the reports available, you can keep your records up to date such that you do not inadvertently send MT messages to phone numbers that are no longer opted in to your programs.

What Infobip expects of you

Retrieving and processing the deact reports on a daily basis is imperative.

You must request access to the deact reports from your Account Executive or Infobip Support.

Use the information to remove deactivated phone numbers from your messaging contact list before they are assigned to new subscribers. Mobile operators are allowed to reassign an inactive phone number within as little as two days of deactivation, so you should retrieve and process the deact reports on a daily basis.

We also recommend that you contact the previous owner of a deactivated number to request that they opt in with their new phone number. If you choose not to do this, then you should not send messages to them until they opt in after the date the phone number first appears in the Deactivated Phone Numbers report.

Mobile operators that provide deactivated phone number reports

The largest US mobile operators provide deact reports, however many smaller operators do not. Of those operators that do provide the information, they do it differently due to the lack of an industry standard. A given report can contain deactivate/disconnect events from a specific mobile operator, and may contain additional information such as how long the phone number will remain deactivated before it is recycled and given to a new subscriber. For mobile operators that have MVNOs, deactivation information for these operators is included in the mobile operator's deactivation file.

The information in the table below is subject to change. Infobip will update the table as we process reports from additional mobile operators. We make all reports available daily and the content of each report is incremental, meaning that it contains only phone numbers for which the deactivation status changed from the previous report.

US Mobile operators providing deact reports

Mobile operator	ID	Deact File Name	Age of data	Deactivation period
Alaska Communications Systems (ACS)	592	acs-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Arctic Slope Telephone Cooperative Association (ASTAC)	10242	astac-deacts	Previous day	2 days
AT&T	383	att-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Atlantic Tele-Network International (ATNI)	10542	atni-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Bandwidth (includes Republic Wireless)	766	bandwidth-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Blue Wireless	15606	blue-deacts	Previous day	2 days
BlueGrass Cellular	562	blueGrass-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Boost	586	boost-deacts	Previous day	50 days
Cable & Cellular/Mid-Rivers Communications	834	cablecellular-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Carolina West	564	carolinaWest-deacts	Previous day	2 days
CellCom	587	cellcom-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Cellular One of N.E. Arizona	566	c1neaz-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Chat Mobility	619	chat-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Copper Valley Telecom	802	coppervalley-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Cordova Telephone Cooperative Inc dba Cordova Wireless	10282	cordova-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Cross Wireless	618	cross-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Digital Communications Consulting	11316	digitalCommunicationsConsulting-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Duet Wireless (through NewCore Wireless)	696	duet-deacts	Previous day	2 days
East Kentucky Network (Appalachia Wireless)	570	appalachian-deacts	Previous day	2 days
GCI Communications	603	gci-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Illinois Valley Cellular	574	ivc-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Inland Cellular	575	inland-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Limitless Mobile (formerly Immix)	588	immix-deacts	Previous day	2 days
MTPCS Cellular One (Cellone Nation)	655	cellone-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Nemont CDMA	796	nemont-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Nex-Tech Communications	578	nextech-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Northwest Missouri Cellular	620	nwmissouri-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Panhandle Wireless	626	ptci-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Pine Belt Cellular	10352	pinebelt-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Pine Cellular	580	pine-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Rural Independent Network Alliance (RINA)	567	ctci-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Shelcomm	11293	shelcom-deacts	Previous day	2 days
SouthernLINC	763	southernlinc-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Sprint	34	sprint-deacts	Previous day	50 days
Standing Rock	764	standingRock-deacts	Previous day	2 days
T-Mobile USA	79	tmobile-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Thumb Cellular	604	thumb-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Tracfone	556	attTracfone-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Triangle Wireless	10272	triangle-deacts	Previous day	2 days
US Cellular	56	usCellular-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Union Telephone	549	union-deacts	Previous day	2 days
Verizon Wireless	77	verizon-deacts	Previous hour	2 days
Viaero Wireless	650	viaero-deacts	Previous day	2 days
West Central Wireless	559	westCentral-deacts	Previous day	2 days

• Deact File Name is the name of the file available from Customer Center Reporting
• Age of data refers to when a phone number was deactivated
• Deactivation period is the number of calendar days a phone number is deactivated